© Media Watch 10 (3) 751-761, 2019
ISSN 0976-0911 E-ISSN 2249-8818
DOI: 10.15655/mw/2019/v10i3/49689
India of the 1970s and Gulzar’s Construction of Gender: Aandhi as a Case for Indian Women
Deeksha Chamola
SNDT Women’s University, India
Abstract
This paper examines the social construction of gender by Gulzar in the film Aandhi and maps it with the cultural and socio-political changes that took place in the country during that era. Aandhi1 is the first Hindi film that narrates the dilemma of a modern woman politician – a space largely occupied by men. Gulzar went against the norms of film making in the seventies and directed a film based on woman politician which broke certain gender stereotypes. Aarti, the female protagonist in the film, wishes to have everything in life at her whims and fancies. She is a non-conformist. She challenges the norms set by society and refuses to become a sandwich between her father’s selfish ambitions and husband’s patriarchal needs.
Keywords: Aandhi, gender, Gulzar, India cinema, Hindi cinema
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Deeksha Chamola (Ph.D., IGNOU, New Delhi, 2017) is a post-doctoral fellow at SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai. Her areas of interest are films, gender, advertising, public relations, and social media.